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Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Writing - part x215, Novel Form, Tension and Release

9 August 2017, Writing - part x215,
Novel Form, Tension and Release

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but the publisher
has delayed all their fiction output due to the economy. I'll keep you
informed. More information can be found at www.ancientlight.com. Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy
them.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.
This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in
installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in
addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel
was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and
tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this
blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I'm using this novel as an example
of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll
keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my
writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production
schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus one basic rules I
employ when writing:

1. Don't confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the
writing.

4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage
of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

These are the steps I use to write a
novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

I
finished writing my 28th novel, working title, School, potential
title Deirdre: Enchantment and the School.The theme statement is: Sorcha, the abandoned
child of an Unseelie and a human, secretly attends Wycombe Abbey girls’ school
where she meets the problem child Deirdre and is redeemed.

Here is the cover proposal for Deirdre:
Enchantment and the School.

Cover
Proposal

The most important scene in any
novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising
action. I continued writing my 29th novel, working title Red Sonja.I finished my 28th novel, working
title School.If you noticed, I started on number 28, but
finished number 29 (in the starting sequence—it’s actually higher than
that).I adjusted the numbering.I do keep everything clear in my
records.

How to begin a novel.Number one thought, we need an entertaining
idea.I usually encapsulate such an idea
with a theme statement.Since I’m
writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.Here is an initial cut.

For novel 29:Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the
X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns
about freedom, and is redeemed.

The
protagonist and the telic flaw are tied permanently together.The novel plot is completely dependent on the
protagonist and the protagonist’s telic flaw.They are inseparable.This is
likely the most critical concept about any normal (classical) form novel.

So,
how do you write a rich and powerful initial scene?Let’s start from a theme statement.Here is an example from my latest novel:

The
theme statement for Deirdre: Enchantment
and the School is: Sorcha, the abandoned child of an Unseelie and a human,
secretly attends Wycombe Abbey girls’ school where she meets the problem child Deirdre
and is redeemed.

Here
is the scene development outline:

1.
Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

4.
Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5.
Write the release

6.
Write the kicker

If
you have the characters (protagonist, protagonist’s helper, and antagonist),
the initial setting, the telic flaw (from the protagonist), a plot idea, the
theme action, then you are ready to write the initial scene.I would state that since you have a
protagonist, the telic flaw, a plot idea, and the theme action, you have about
everything—what you might be lacking is the tension and release cycle in your scenes.

Pathos is the term we use in
classical literature to define the development and expression of proper emotion
in your readers.We want our readers to
feel the proper emotions we have developed.This is true in writing and it is true in movies and plays.For example, when you are at a movie or play,
if the observers laugh or cry at the wrong place or time during the performance
that is bathos.The movie or play
produced the incorrect emotional response.There is always the chance that your audience is made up of psychopaths,
but that usually isn’t the case.

The same is true for novels.Although the possibility of laugh out loud
incorrect response isn’t usually as possible while reading, the lack of or
pushing the reader out of the suspension of reality (suspension of disbelief)
is very possible.This is what we as
authors desperately want to prevent.Thus, in writing, the most important point is to do everything to hold
your readers in the suspension of disbelief.I’ve written extensively about this before.I have touched this area before.I need to emphasize it again.We want to produce the proper emotional
response in our readers first to prevent falling out of the suspension of
disbelief, and second, because it is through the emotions of our readers that
we produce entertainment.

People read to be entertained, and
the purpose (really the only purpose) of fiction writing is to entertain.If you don’t and can’t entertain your
readers, you will not succeed in any way as an author. Entertainment comes from emotional response.I’m not sure I agree with the model of
emotions that I presented, but emotions are what drives entertainment—I laughed,
I cried, I was entertained.I think I
have that quote right.

In any case, the point of all
fiction writing is to entertain.I’ve
been trying to focus your thinking on tension and release and how to write
tension and release in scenes.I think I’ll
go back to the basic concept of entertainment and proper emotions and see how
that relates to tension and release in a scene.

About Me

L. D. Alford is a novelist whose writing explores with originality those cultures and societies we think we already know. His writing distinctively develops the connections between present events and history—he combines them with threads of reality that bring the past alive. L. D. Alford is familiar with technology and cultures—he is widely traveled and earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University, an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Dayton, and is a graduate of Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, and the USAF Test Pilot School. L. D. Alford is an author who combines intimate scientific and cultural knowledge into fiction worlds that breathe reality. He is the author of three historical fiction novels: Centurion, Aegypt, and The Second Mission, and three science fiction novels: The End of Honor, The Fox’s Honor, and A Season of Honor.